There has been some confusion as to what a company is. Generally, when I speak of companies, I am speaking of those faceless giants which influence so much of our lives with no real accountability. The companies would like us and their employees to believe that the employees are the company. This is wrong. While the employees certainly make up the company and without them, the company could not exist, the employees are not the company. Employees have no say in how the company is run, in which direction the company is going to go. They don’t get paid more if the company does better this year; they don’t get paid less when the company does worse. So why would a company have us believe that its employees are the company? It gives the company a face. After all, when someone goes into a store, they associate the person working for the company with the company. (Often the person is called an associate – a sales associate, for example.) It makes the company seem more human. If the companies can convince their employees that they are the companies, then the employees are going to work harder for “their” company. The moment that someone takes ownership in something is the same moment that the person attaches his or her identity to that thing. In the U.S., we get so wrapped up in our identity that when we identify with something, we naturally want that something to get better. If the company can get the employees to identify themselves with the company, the employees will sacrifice their time for the company. They will take abuse for the company. They will do more for the company than they would have if they thought of working for the company as a job. Who are the companies? The companies are the CEOs and the stockholders. This would be a fine system if the stockholders were actually involved in the running of companies. Unfortunately, the stock market has become America’s favorite savings plan. This makes the CEOs accountable to one thing – the bottom line. Because Americans are no longer personally involved with their investments but use investment programs, they no longer have to worry about what their original investment has gone to fund. They have no idea if their dividends disguised as interest have come from the back of kids in a Thai sweatshop or from the brow of an American who has worked for 60 hours and been paid for 40. No one in power worries about the environment, the welfare of employees, fairness; they think only of making more money. Those in charge know that the wealth that comes from their stocks will be pulled if their company does not make a profit, and the bigger the profit, the more their shares of stock are going to be worth. If we wish to be good investors, we must know what companies we are investing in are doing. If we do not know, then we may be enabling an entity to steal the life force of its laborers.